Relics, Pussy Riot and the Virgin Mary

Grayson Perry's statue of Our Mother  the symbolism of mercy and love which her figure has traditionally expressed has migrated and now shapes secular imagery and events; although a decidedly lapsed Catholic myself, a statue can be a symbol, and if that symbol conveys human action which is merciful and loving surely this is a good thing. 


The veneration of relics is being being strongly encouraged once more. A relic of Thérèse of Lisieux was recently taken on tour; the reliquary attracted vast, fervent crowds who testified to reporters that contact with the saint had a transformative effect on them.

When the Belt of Virgin Mary, a famed help to fertility, was brought last year from Mount Athos to Russia, thousands queued in the icy winter weather to touch the reliquary; the majority were women, young women between twenty and forty. The passion of such testimonials is moving, and it would be ugly to scoff at them; they also offer, as one Russian paper commented, a diagnosis of distress.

One of the relic’s way stations on its triumphal tour was the Cathedral Church of Christ the Saviour where, around six months later, Pussy Riot erupted onto the altar by the sacred iconostasis and staged their protest. ‘The main concern,’ one of them said afterwards, ‘was to appeal to the Virgin because she is considered the protector of Russia, and that is why we made a prayer to the Virgin to kick out Putin.’


go to Pussy Riot video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grEBLskpDWQ

 A choppy video shows the young women in their lollipop-bright balaclavas, tights and dresses, capering and kneeling, and then, after two of them have been hauled away, the two who are left cross and prostrate themselves before guards hustle them off. In a magnificent show of spirit, punk irony here claims Mary for its champion against the lies and corruption of the Russian Orthodox Church, which is headed by a patriarch who has called Putin ‘a miracle of God’. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sees the band’s actions as yurodstvo – ‘holy fooling’ – in the Russian spiritual tradition, and brilliantly turns quotes from the New Testament against the women’s accusers: ‘It makes us sick,’ she said in her closing statement to the court, ‘to see such beautiful ideas forced to their knees.’ It is extraordinary that the state doesn’t see that meting out excessive punishments to the band – Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, both of whom have a young child, have been sent to prison camps of notorious harshness – only goes to prove that what they say is right.